The vacancy rate for industrial real estate in central Arkansas remained relatively stable through the second quarter of 2014, ticking up just slightly to 10.8 percent compared with 10.6 percent in first-quarter 2014. That’s above the national average of 9 percent but far below central Arkansas’ 12.2 percent vacancy rate of second-quarter 2013.

Vacancy rates for the northwest Arkansas office space market dropped almost one-half percent to 9.3 percent during the first quarter of 2014. The rate was 9.7 percent in the last quarter of 2013, according to data collected by Xceligent Inc. of Independence, Mo.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it has eight projects in some stage of development in northwest Arkansas, and that’s not including a planned neighborhood market in Bentonville and a convenience store prototype that recently opened in Bentonville.